The 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' actor served as a producer on the Martin Scorsese-directed family film - which stars Asa Butterfield as the titular character - and while it was originally intended he would take part, schedule clashes eventually made it impossible.

Producer Graham King said: "When I first got the manuscript of the book, I sent it to Johnny. We did a lot of movies together. Part of it is me sending projects to Johnny I think he could play a role in, another part of seeing if he has the reaction I have, and he read it and loved it and I said let's make this together.

"There's a role that's not in the movie now that was in The Script that he was going to play, a very small role. But we just didn't have the time to do it with the schedule. He was actually across the street shooting 'Pirates 4'.

Graham also admits he was initially sceptical about filming the picture in 3-D, but was convinced because it is a "very exciting platform".

He told CinemaBlend.com: "I had no idea what I was getting into. Nor did Marty, nor did anyone. No film had ever been shot like this before in 3-D. You had to wear the glasses at the monitor.

"But it shows an audience that 3-D can be a very exciting platform of technology in today's market."